Xilitla- The surreal world of Las Pozas

Xilitla is a town located on the top of a very windy mountain road in the state of San Luis Potosi. It is extremely tropical and not that easy to get to, however, the trek was more than worth it. The drive from Tomosopo was stunning. It reminded us of the landscape of south western Thailand. There were lots of sugarcane fields, trucks over flowing with oranges, lush tropical foliage and sharp granite mountains framing the scenery. It felt like a part of Mexico we had never seen anything like before.

Our destination was Las Pozas, a garden/park/surreal wonderland in the town of Xilitla. Las Pozas was built by Edward James, and English poet and early supporter of the surrealist movement and patron of Salvador Dali. James fell in love with this part of Mexico and decided to spend his life savings on creating his dream garden and house in this tropical paradise. From 1949 and 1984, Mexican workers and artisans built this other worldly place in the jungle.

While we were there we described it as Alice in Wonderland, meets Angkor Wat. Today the Edward James foundation preserves his house so that the public can be part of his beautiful vision. It is a magical place, as you entered you first got to experience all the water. Las Pozas means pools in Spanish and you can see how the place got its name.

You could swim in this pool.

Water is the focus of a large part of the house.

We loved how you could just climb all over everything. Very much like Angkor Wat.

During our day here we found a bunch of amazing hiking trails. Las Pozas is on over 80 kilometers of land and there are tons of really fun and challenging vertical trails. However, we were not prepared for hiking. I was wearing a skirt, cheap flip flops and holding a plastic bag with our bathing suits. My stubbornness won out and we ended up hiking for hours in the most inappropriate hiking get up of the trip. As I was slipping down a fairly steep slope, I could not stop laughing at myself, it is not easy to hike in flip flops in the jungle.

An REI ad for outdoor adventure I am not… I look more like a lost homeless woman than an adventure traveler =)

Unique structures popped up all along the trails.

I hated that cheap bag during all my adventure climbing, I would have killed for a backpack.

We also hiked to a waterfall. I am the little green dot on the bottom slipping along the wet rocks in cheap shoes.

But the real star of Las Pozas was the “living quarters”. This part was just other worldly. I will let the pictures try to describe how amazing it was (the pictures are a little blown out since many were taken shooting into the sun).

Me on the top of one of many very tall structures above tree level.

Sam on another structure. You can climb anywhere you are brave enough to go.

The jungle meshed beautifully with the structures.

We had a blast posing for all the pictures.

Except this picture! This structure was VERY high, I had to crawl up the stairs, I was shaking as Sam took this pic. It was WAY higher than it looks. OMG…

This place says a lot about the talent of Mexican builders.

They said something like this could only be made in mexico because of the skill level of its workers.

Cement art.

This town was nestled in the mountains and we found a camp spot at a finca up the road from Las Pozas for 80 pesos a night. We loved the experience and were glad we made the long trek there.